i feel this contributes to op's point/question. how do y'all base y'all's knowledge of how important ties are? by callback percentage? look of displeasure in the interviewer's face when you tell them you're not a good ol boy?

starry eyed wrote:i feel this contributes to op's point/question. how do y'all base y'all's knowledge of how important ties are? by callback percentage? look of displeasure in the interviewer's face when you tell them you're not a good ol boy?

-A few firms explicitly mention ties on their job postings-Some firms will ignore apps from people without clear ties in their cover letter or resume-Some firms will respond to your mass mail and simply ask, "Thanks for your email. What are your ties to ______?" That actually happened to me.-Some firms will grill you during your screener-Some firms will grill you at your screener and every interview at your callback. Also happened to me.

If the firm wants ties, you'll know. Basically, outside of NYC, you should always have some kind of ties "pitch" ready to go.

This is probably a stupid question but can anyone explain to me why exactly ties are so important to firms? Like why are they concerned if you want to move across the country to a new place or not? Is it because you're more of a flight risk without any ties to the area?

hearsay77 wrote:This is probably a stupid question but can anyone explain to me why exactly ties are so important to firms? Like why are they concerned if you want to move across the country to a new place or not? Is it because you're more of a flight risk without any ties to the area?

Yes.

And you might be a net loss for the firm your first year, so they don't really want to subsidize you trying out a new city only to leave.

hearsay77 wrote:This is probably a stupid question but can anyone explain to me why exactly ties are so important to firms? Like why are they concerned if you want to move across the country to a new place or not? Is it because you're more of a flight risk without any ties to the area?

Yes.

And you might be a net loss for the firm your first year, so they don't really want to subsidize you trying out a new city only to leave.

And you are almost definitely a net loss when you're a summer associate. While firms care about flight risks generally, they really don't want someone to try out a city for a summer, get an offer and then turn around and accept a job in a market they like more. That puts the firm in the position of (a) being out the summer associate salary, (b) looking less than great since a summer who spent three months there doesn't want to return, and (c) potentially having to find a 3L to replace that person who the firm will offer a real job to despite not having gotten to kick the tires during the summer.

Another big concern is that they will offer you the 2L summer job over someone else, you will keep the offer in your back pocket for a week or two while trying to find a job in your first choice market, and in the meantime their backup choices will be accepting jobs at other firms. If you have ties you're more likely to accept the job offer (and accept it quickly) because it's more likely you're actually targeting that market.

I was targeting a ties-sensitive market at OCI, and despite having strong ties, the firms weren't entirely sold on my dedication to the area (and therefore on giving me an offer) until I explained that I wasn't interviewing with a single NYC firm.

hearsay77 wrote:This is probably a stupid question but can anyone explain to me why exactly ties are so important to firms? Like why are they concerned if you want to move across the country to a new place or not? Is it because you're more of a flight risk without any ties to the area?

Yes.

And you might be a net loss for the firm your first year, so they don't really want to subsidize you trying out a new city only to leave.

And you are almost definitely a net loss when you're a summer associate. While firms care about flight risks generally, they really don't want someone to try out a city for a summer, get an offer and then turn around and accept a job in a market they like more. That puts the firm in the position of (a) being out the summer associate salary, (b) looking less than great since a summer who spent three months there doesn't want to return, and (c) potentially having to find a 3L to replace that person who the firm will offer a real job to despite not having gotten to kick the tires during the summer.

Another big concern is that they will offer you the 2L summer job over someone else, you will keep the offer in your back pocket for a week or two while trying to find a job in your first choice market, and in the meantime their backup choices will be accepting jobs at other firms. If you have ties you're more likely to accept the job offer (and accept it quickly) because it's more likely you're actually targeting that market.

I was targeting a ties-sensitive market at OCI, and despite having strong ties, the firms weren't entirely sold on my dedication to the area (and therefore on giving me an offer) until I explained that I wasn't interviewing with a single NYC firm.

They're really that concerned about NYC? That fucking sucks. I keep reading about people who took NYC as a last resort and can't wait to leave, so it's a little weird to me that they're convinced everyone without ties is going to leave for being poor in the Big Apple. At the same time, it seems incredibly risky not to bid any NYC firms.

hearsay77 wrote:This is probably a stupid question but can anyone explain to me why exactly ties are so important to firms? Like why are they concerned if you want to move across the country to a new place or not? Is it because you're more of a flight risk without any ties to the area?

Yes.

And you might be a net loss for the firm your first year, so they don't really want to subsidize you trying out a new city only to leave.

And you are almost definitely a net loss when you're a summer associate. While firms care about flight risks generally, they really don't want someone to try out a city for a summer, get an offer and then turn around and accept a job in a market they like more. That puts the firm in the position of (a) being out the summer associate salary, (b) looking less than great since a summer who spent three months there doesn't want to return, and (c) potentially having to find a 3L to replace that person who the firm will offer a real job to despite not having gotten to kick the tires during the summer.

Another big concern is that they will offer you the 2L summer job over someone else, you will keep the offer in your back pocket for a week or two while trying to find a job in your first choice market, and in the meantime their backup choices will be accepting jobs at other firms. If you have ties you're more likely to accept the job offer (and accept it quickly) because it's more likely you're actually targeting that market.

I was targeting a ties-sensitive market at OCI, and despite having strong ties, the firms weren't entirely sold on my dedication to the area (and therefore on giving me an offer) until I explained that I wasn't interviewing with a single NYC firm.

They're really that concerned about NYC? That fucking sucks. I keep reading about people who took NYC as a last resort and can't wait to leave, so it's a little weird to me that they're convinced everyone without ties is going to leave for being poor in the Big Apple. At the same time, it seems incredibly risky not to bid any NYC firms.

I think NYC was just an illustration of the fact that some secondaries don't want to play second fiddle to big cities. If nothing in your background really speaks to wanting to be in NYC/other primary market (eg you grew up in Miami, went to UM and want to come back) then youcan dispel the firms concerns just by saying that

But if you legit don't have ties or a good reason to be in secondary / tertiary then yeah, you should be concerned. The firms knows you have no basis for judging whether you'd like living in the city, and so it's less risky for them to take someone who knows and knows they like the area

Eta: also this thread is pretty silly. The strength of ties needed varies dramatically by market, firm, type of firm (national? Regional?), and your school. You'll get better answers if you give deets on your goals and school

fisheatbananas wrote:OP said 'major markets' so not sure if this counts, but PWC (Portland and Seattle) is one of the hardest to break into and you'll want strong ties

I can attest to this. I go to one of CCN and I had lived/gone to undergrad in Seattle. When interviewing at Seattle firms, at least two of my interviewers asked me why I didn't go to UW for law school. From my experience, so much as choosing not to attend law school in the region is enough to make them question the commitment of even a native PNWer. That said, maybe I just had odd interviews.

Hikkomorist wrote:Everyone talks about how NYC doesn't care about ties, but that most other markets do. Could we get a more specific breakdown of all the major markets and how tie-sensitive they are, all in one place? If you have knowledge of a specific market, please share here.

A lot of this depends on what school you're coming from, how you did in that school and what firm you're shooting for.

Last edited by unc0mm0n1 on Sun Apr 26, 2015 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.